Virgin Australia officials have moved quickly to reassure travellers that flight credits issued for cancelled flights remain valid, despite the company confirming this morning it was being placed into the hands of administrators, triggering what will be the largest airline collapse in Australian aviation history.
At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Virgin allowed thousands of travellers forced to cancel flights to put their cost of their airfares into a “Travel Bank” to be used as credits on future flights once travel restrictions lifted. This was offered to passengers as a primary response, rather than issuing full refunds to flyers.
Following this morning’s confirmation that the airline would be placed in voluntary administration amid staggering company debts of nearly $5 billion, the question of what happens to those travel credits emerged as an obvious source of anxiety for customers.
Moving quickly to assuage fears, Virgin officials stated that despite the announcement, scheduled flights are continuing as normal – but only the ones currently still operating in an effort to transport essential pandemic workers around the country – and that, more specifically, all travel credits remain valid.
In a statement posted this morning, Virgin officials stressed that “we know you might be worried about what the voluntary administration news means for us and your flights,” but that “your travel credits also remain valid” nonetheless.
— Virgin Australia (@VirginAustralia) April 20, 2020
While travel credits remain valid for the time being – able to be used on the bare handful of flights still operating provided you are an essential health worker – what this means for them moving forward remains to be seen, and is obviously highly dependant on the fate of the company itself.
A lot of water still to flow under this particular bridge.
